Nation's lightning deaths hit record low in 2021
ORLANDO, Fla. — Lightning deaths were a record low in the U.S. in 2021, and Florida led the nation in fatalities.
Strikes killed 11 people last year, according to the National Lightning Safety Council.
Florida had the most with four, lower than usual. In 2016, strikes killed 10 people statewide, a quarter of the national deaths. Florida’s lowest counts were one in 2011 and three each in 2019 and 2020.
“This new low of 11 lightning deaths is dramatically fewer than the 432 Americans killed by lightning in 1943,” said John Jensenius, a lightning safety specialist with the NLSC. “When the Lightning Safety Awareness Campaign began in 2001, the U.S. averaged 47 lightning fatalities a year. The average number of deaths for the past five years has now dropped to 17.”
Eight of last year’s deaths nationally were related to leisure activities, and three with work-related activities. Five of the leisure fatalities were on beaches and three on golf courses.
When lightning is in the area, Vaisala recommends seeking overhead shelter immediately, but not under a tree, which is dangerous.
—Orlando Sentinel
Mali shuts borders, recalls envoys after regional sanctions
Mali shut its borders and recalled several ambassadors after West Africa’s economic bloc imposed sanctions on the gold-producing country for refusing to hold elections next month.
The government will “take all necessary measures” to respond to the move, government spokesman Col. Abdoulaye Maiga said in a statement read on national television on Monday. It urged the nation’s security forces to “remain mobilized” because of the possible deployment of Economic Community of West African States troops.
President Assimi Goita is expected to address the nation later on Monday, while the United Nations Security Council is scheduled to discuss Mali’s political crisis on Tuesday, according to a U.N. official in Mali.
Ecowas, as the bloc is known, on Sunday froze Malian assets at the region’s central bank and commercial lenders in member states, suspended non-essential financial transactions and ordered land borders be closed. The announcement came a week after the military-dominated government proposed a five-year transition period, in defiance of international pressure to prepare a return to civilian rule next month.
Mali is Africa’s third-biggest gold producer, and companies including Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp. and Vancouver’s B2Gold Corp. have operations in the country. Barrick said its mines have so far not been affected by the sanctions and it has sufficient stocks and stores to continue operating normally. Still, “the situation was very fluid” and the company is monitoring it closely, a Barrick spokesperson said via email.
—Bloomberg News
NY man arrested for threatening to kill Trump, officials say
NEW YORK — A Queens man has been arrested for making numerous threats to kill former President Donald Trump, federal investigators said Monday.
“I do not want to hurt anyone, but I will stand up to fascism,” said the 72-year-old Rockaway Beach resident, Thomas Welnicki, during a voluntary July 2020 interview with law enforcement.
When Welnicki was interviewed by the United States Capitol Police he told them that if Trump lost the election but refused to leave office Welnicki would “acquire weapons” and “take him down,” according to a criminal complaint unsealed in Brooklyn Federal Court Monday.
The complaint does not name Trump, referring to him instead as “Individual 1,” but a law enforcement source confirmed the target was the former president.
“I really hope God takes (Individual 1) out,” Welnicki also said, according to the complaint.
On Jan. 4, 2021, Welnicki called the Secret Service’s Long Island Branch and left voicemails saying he would kill Trump as well as 12 other people who supported the former president, including members of Congress, the complaint says.
“Oh yeah, that’s a threat, come and arrest me,” Welnicki allegedly said in the voicemail. “I will do anything I can to take out (Individual 1) and his 12 monkeys. If I had the opportunity to do it in Manhattan that would be awesome.”
Even after Trump left office, Welnicki’s threats did not abate, the feds said.
The next day, Welnicki admitted to law enforcement that he made the call to the secret service, prosecutors said.
—New York Daily News
Guerrilla war exercise to take place in rural NC, Army warns
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A “realistic” guerrilla war will be fought across two dozen North Carolina counties in the coming weeks, with young soldiers battling seasoned “freedom fighters,” according to the U.S. Army.
The two-week “unconventional warfare exercise” will be staged Jan. 22-Feb. 4 on privately owned land. And it will be realistic enough to include the sounds of gunfire (blanks) and flares, the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School said in a news release.
Exact times, locations and exercise specifics were not provided.
However, advance publicity is intended to make sure civilians — including law enforcement officers — don’t mistake the fighting for terrorism or criminal activity, which has happened in the past.
“Residents may hear blank gunfire and see occasional flares. Controls are in place to ensure there is no risk to persons or property,” the warfare center said.
Called Robin Sage, the exercise serves as a final test for Special Forces Qualification Course training and it places candidates in a politically unstable country known as Pineland.
The candidates face off against seasoned service members from units across Fort Bragg, as well as specially trained civilians, officials said. The setting is “characterized by armed conflict,” forcing the students to solve problems in a real world setting, the center says.
Advance public notice of “the U.S. military’s premiere unconventional warfare exercise” became a priority in 2002, after one soldier was killed and another wounded when a Moore County sheriff’s deputy mistook Robin Sage exercises for criminal activity.
—The Charlotte Observer
